Obviously, RIP Sam Neill, the iconic actor whose presence was felt across so many different films, notably The Hunt For The Wilderpeople, In The Mouth Of Madness, Dead Calm, Event Horizon, The Hunt For Red October, The Piano, The Horse Whisperer, and of course Jurassic Park. Yes, Sam, they do run in herds.
TV Shows Watched: House Of The Dragon: S3E4 (HBO MAX) with audio description, Your Friends And Neighbors: S2E7 (Apple) with audio description, The Dinosaurs: S1E4 (Netflix) with audio description, Will Trent: S4E14 (Disney Plus) with audio description, The Westies: S1E1 (MGM Plus) with audio description, and The Four Seasons: S2E6 (Netflix) with audio description
House Of The Dragon- Shit! Love it. Really, this show has some exceptional audio description. I loved so many little non-shit related moments. Damon peering over the edge of the moon window, the description of a haggard Rayna, the Cudgel sequence, and the Sunfire scene. I wish we could live in an alternate reality of this show, where they break from Martin’s text, and the Queen stays, because she’s the most level headed leader of the bunch.
Your Friends And Neighbors- A party in the Hamptons is marred by the feds, and I love how anytime Ash isn’t being watched, he’s scowling in the background, with like no expression or something. It adds to the inherent evilness behind his character. James Marsden is great in this. The audio description was also very well done.
The Dinosaurs- Finished it finally. It’s amazing how much Post House managed to bring out in and around Morgan Freeman’s description. I’m not sure we need this show, but I’m glad it got decent audio description.
Will Trent- I’m over Will’s arc this season. I’m actually gravitating far more toward his supporting cast right now, and if he exited, I’d watch a Will Trent without him. It would be weird, but for a hot minute, there was no Grey on Grey’s Anatomy.The AD is here, and I didn’t intentionally watch two Roy Samuelson narrated shows. I just did.
The Westies- The new historical crime drama which achieves what NBC’s The Black Donnellys tried to do like 20 years ago, came out of the gate swinging. JK Simmons and Titus Welliver topline this mob drama about Sweeney (Simmons) and how his Irish gang fight for what is theirs around John Gotti and the Italians. It was initiallly designed to be part of the Godfather Of Harlem world, until they realized it needed to stand on its own. I agree. This was a strong start, and it has the guy from Grantchester in a very different role than what people are used to seeing from him. The AD is solid. The character descriptions were decent, but I’ve heard better.
The Four Seasons- A flashback episode to a pandemic Thanksgiving with Steve Carell back as Nick, before he and Ann ever split up.The AD here is also great, paying attention to who is masked when, since it matters. When Nick kisses Ann with his Covid mask on I thought that was cute. A fun episode.
There are no losers here. Every show had good audio description, but House Of The Dragon has the best, because it also has the most to work with. A massive ensemble, violence, fantasy elements, and a script not too heavy on dialogue, giving the AD team room to breathe. But, there’s no loser here.
